Just a Little Summer Reading

This time of year, everyone seems to have a Summer Reads list - much like the Best of the Year lists that emerge in December.  Stephen King, writing for Entertainment Weekly, just announced his 6 Must-Reads For Summer (John Sandford, The Passage, Stieg Larsson...yawn); O Magazine has a huge list (including Aimee Bender, Brando Skyhorse, and Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill); Time Magazine asked several writers for their picks, including Rebecca Skloot (Ted Conover's The Routes of Man - also one of my favorites), Charlaine Harris (61 Hours by Lee Child), and Alan Furst (Operation Mincemeat); NPR had a list from Indie booksellers as well.  You get the idea.  We here at Warwick's are entering the fray - here are the Summer Reads recommended by our booksellers - in brief:

Adriana:  "Told through alternating view points, The Heights by Peter Hedges (author of What's Eating Gilbert Grape) is in turns surprising, insightful, funny, and will have you guessing right until the very end."

Janet:  "Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea - a funny, timely novel set partly in San Diego, with a with strong women characters and a loose Seven Samurai theme."

Jim:  "Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende is a beautifully written historical novel about the Caribbean during the era of French Colonialism."

Heather:  "Juliet by Anne Fortier is the story of Julie Jacobs, a young woman who is drawn into the mysterious and very real world of Shakespeare’s infamous warring families. This was a fast-paced, intriguing story with complex characters, and a clever plot. A very engaging read." (Due out August 24th.)

James:  "Summer is a time for keeping things light and eating great food. Tarquin Hall's The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing is a curry flavored treat in the style of Alexander McCall Smith and Agatha Christie that will keep you hungering for more."

Rob:  "Brady Udall's The Lonely Polygamist is a funny and original novel about a guy with lots of wives and even more issues."

Joe:  Model Home by Eric Puchner - a novel about the California experience of boom & bust, both hilarious & heartbreaking at the same time. I was laughing, crying, then really crying.  Loved it.

Rhonda:  "Crazy For the Storm by Norman Ollestad. Ollestad was only 11 years old in 1979 when he, his father, his father’s girlfriend, and the pilot flying their small charter plane crashed into a California mountain during a blizzard. Only Norman survived. How did this young boy survive such a disaster?"

Margie:  "Furious Love by Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger is one book you'll enjoy for sure.  Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor have long been a fascination for many of us - they had a volatile relationship, for sure, but the were always very protective of each other and their families.  It's wonderful to know just a little bit more about this fabulous couple."

Steven:  "Drinky Crow's Maakies Treasury (or any Maakies collection, actually) by Tony Millionaire is the perfect nautically-themed adventure to read while sipping on a pint of rum and relfecting on the miseries of another long, hot summer."

John:  "In K Blows Top: A Cold War Comic Interlude, Starring Nikita Khrushchev, America's Most Unlikely Tourist, Peter Carlson delivers a shocking, hilarious, and thoroughly entertaining account of Nikita Khrushchev’s 1959 trip across America. As funny as any novel I have ever read, this is a perfect beach read for any lover of history."

Seth:  "What else could I pick for Summer Reading but my favorite author's new novel?  David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet is a majestic, sprawling historical epic of Japan and the encroaching West at the end of the 1700's.  Mitchell's brilliant prose sweeps you along with the flow, always keeping you wondering, as foreigner like Jacob, how much of the lush, inner world of Japan you will be allowed to glimpse."  See more in Are You Seth? vol 10.